FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13, 2015
THE BAKER COUNTY PRESS — 7
Local / Sports
Crossroads holds expansion
meeting for public input
La Grande Swim Club hosted their Spooktacular swim
meet on November 7 & 8. There were a total of 166
athletes representing 7 teams from Oregon, Washington
and Idaho. Of the swimmers for La Grande, two com-
peting are from Baker City, Jared Miller(16) and Riana
Scott(13). The following are their results:
Jared Miller
15 & over 50 free 1st
15 & over 100 Free 1st
15 & over 200 Free 1st
15 & over 500 Free 1st
15 & over 100 Back 1st
15 & over 200 back 1st
15 & over high point 3rd
Riana Scott
13-14 50 Free 2nd
13-14 100 Free 3rd
13-14 100 Breast 2nd
13-14 200 Breast 2nd
13-14 100 Back 2nd
13-14 200 Back 2nd
13-14 100 Fly 5th
13-14 400 IM 1st
13-14 high point 2nd
The next meet for these swimmers is the Boise Y
Thanksgiving Invitational, November 20-22.
BY GINA K. SWARTZ
Gina@TheBakerCountyPress.com
An idea is being tossed
around to expand the
Crossroads Art Center.
Crossroads has received
grant funding from the Na-
tional Endowment for the
Arts Challenge, America
Grant and the Ford Family
Foundation to do a feasi-
bility study on the neigh-
boring Welch Building as
a possibility for any future
expansion.
Crossroads is not plan-
ning to leave the current
location in the Carnegie
Library, which was recent-
ly restored—a process that
in itself took six years to
complete. “The Carnegie
Library is limited in teach-
ing space which is a core
of our mission and Cross-
roads has been looking at
options,” said Crossroads
Executive Director Ginger
Savage.
The Welch Building
is one of those options.
“Crossroads Board of
Directors is committed to
a careful and systematic
process, which has always
included a great deal of
community input,” added
Savage.
A series of public out-
reach meetings is being
held to gain input from the
community and assist in
the feasibility study for the
expansion and prospect of
the Welch property.
That property is directly
across Auburn Street from
where the Arts Center is
currently located.
The first of the series was
held Tuesday at 1:00 p.m.
at Crossroads and fa-
cilitated by architect Larry
Abell, who is also Presi-
dent of Historic Baker City
and Crossroads Executive
Director Ginger Savage.
A handful of Baker
City residents with interest
in the center, including
YMCA Executive Director
Heidi Dalton, attended the
meeting.
Abell gave a brief pre-
sentation highlighting the
expansion to the Welch
Building. Some construc-
tion in the building has
occurred already but turn-
ing the 3,000 square-foot
property would be a major
undertaking.
It is a prospect that
Swimmers host
Spooktacular
Gina K. Swartz / The Baker County Press
Historic Baker City’s Larry Abell at left, and Crossroads Executive Director
Ginger Savage speak to a small group about possible Crossroads expansion.
Savage and Abell find
exciting, and acquiring the
property and expanding
would double the space
Crossroads already has
and provide critical storage
capacity that they say is
desperately needed.
Abell gave a brief slide
presentation that included
photos of the inside of the
Welch building and out-
lined Crossroads mission
statement, “Our mission
is to create opportunities
for the entire community
to be engaged, inspired,
and transformed by the
arts through participation
in classes, workshops,
exhibits, mentorships, and
partnerships. A welcoming
place where people meet
and the arts speak.”
He then asked for the
group to share ideas as to
what types of things would
be beneficial to the mission
statement and expand the
scope of the Arts Center.
Ideas were tossed out
that included things like
making a media center that
might include a place to
do voice overs or create
“commercials” or perhaps
produce radio endeavors.
This idea envisioned
encompassing students in
one or more roles giving
skills that could inspire for
a lifetime and even added a
revenue generating aspect
to the idea as well. The
question was asked if there
was the possibility of liv-
ing space that could foster
tenants providing for an
artist in residence aspect.
Dalton, because of her
involvement with youth in
our community through the
YMCA had several ideas,
and envisioned connecting
with the community. She
recently toured YMCA and
Community Facilities in
other areas like Chicago,
and while by no means
was she trying to compare
this small community to a
metropolis such as Chicago
with their needs and re-
sources, she was impressed
with some of the ideas they
were utilizing.
Everyone at the meeting
agreed that flexibility was
of the utmost importance
in and space. Savage
expressed also that of
any space she needed to
be mindful of how it was
used.
She indicated that cur-
rently she has four-year-
olds who attend the center
for dance classes and has
art displays geared toward
adults that those chil-
dren must pass to use the
restroom. So the potential
was there for a problem.
Moving dance classes
to expanded property
would both eliminate that
problem and potentially
provide better, larger space
for those classes.
Other ideas expressed
included expanding
outdoor venues that might
lend to more how-to type
exhibits and the addition of
a bistro that could cultivate
culinary classes.
Dalton added to that
idea the possibility of
adding a rooftop garden,
which those involved with
culinary programs could
use. Partnering with online
schooling in the arts was
also mentioned as some-
thing that may go in well
with the media center.
More public outreach
meeting are scheduled for
Tuesday, November 17 at
8:00 a.m. and Thursday
November 19 at 6:00 p.m.
both at the crossroads art
center.
Crossroads also invites
community members to
stay after the public input
sessions and share any
stories or remembrances
of Welch Building—as
known to some as the old
Baker Clinic or the old
KBKR Building.
The feasibility study
must be done by December
31, 2015, and at that time
the Crossroads Board of
Directors will take the time
to review all options.
For more information,
please contact Crossroads
at 541-523-5369.
Wrestling
tournament
Public Works talks wastewater
BY GINA K. SWARTZ
Gina@TheBakerCountyPress.com
Thursday at noon in
Council Chambers at City
Hall the Public Works Ad-
visory Committee met for
the first time since May.
Public Works Director
Michelle Owen facili-
tated the meeting with City
Engineer Doug Schwin
assisting her.
Committee members
Gary Carter, Myrna
Morgan, Allen McDaniel
and John Wickert were in
attendance with Milo Pope
and Jim Bruce absent.
The meeting was called
to order and the committee
voted to accept the minutes
from the May 7, 2015
meeting.
Review of Projects
Owen began by stating
that in January and Febru-
ary of each year she tries to
gather together ideas that
need to go into the next fis-
cal year’s capital plan.
She likes to have that
plan together by March,
“which really isn’t that
far off,” she said, so she
knows what to approach
the Budget Board for when
they are working on the
City Budget for the next
fiscal year.
Owen gave an overview
of projects the Public
Works Department is
working on or has com-
pleted for this year. She
spoke of the Auburn Street
waterline that had been
replaced this past summer.
She said, “That has been
in and out of the Capital
plan for at least a decade.
But we finally got that
taken care of.”
She cited reasons for the
delay of the project being
issues such as street main-
tenance issues like chip
seal or overlay projects and
just not wanting to destroy
work that had just been
done to the street.
She noted,“It was a
challenge for traffic in the
area but overall went very
well.” Owen mentioned
chip seal projects that were
very successful. “We’ve
gotten it down to a science,
I think we are good at do-
ing our short blocks.”
Fog Seal projects were
not without some issue, the
City used a product they
had not used before and
unfortunately the salesper-
son misrepresented drying
time for the product there-
fore not all projects were
able to be completed.
Owen said, “It wasn’t
a complete success, or a
complete disaster.It looks
great and has worked well.
The Fog Seal was ap-
plied to Resort Street, L
Street and E Street but E
Street was right in front of
the High School and we
were right in the middle
of the fires and had all of
the firefighters at the high
school so there were some
challenges with that.”
Schwin added, “I don’t
think it was a failure at all
it is just that the curing
time was not what they had
represented.”
City Council member
Jim Thomas asked, “Was
it because it was just a bad
mix?”
Owen and Schwin ad-
vised that the product is
a good product and they
have been happy with it
they both just felt that the
salesman just didn’t under-
stand the drying process
and time it would require.
The driver that was apply-
ing the product seemed
surprised the salesman had
represented it as curing so
quickly and seemed a lot
more knowledgeable about
the product.
Owen advised the com-
mittee of a water leak and
sink hole that had occurred
on Valley that required un-
expected attention. It was a
significant leak about 2000
gallons per minute. “It ran
for 40 minutes,” Owen
said.
SEE PUBLIC WORKS
PAGE 12
Submitted Photos Courtesy of Dan Batchelor.
Baker Mat Club had 13 first-place wins, 9 second-
place wins, and 11 third-place wins at last Satur-
day’s tournament held in Baker City. The match was
attended by wrestlers from Walla Walla, La Grande,
Hermiston, Union, Enterprise, Irrigon, Pendleton,
and Baker. The next match will be hosted by Pend-
leton on November 14, 2015. Approximately 50
wrestlers are members of the Baker Mat Club team.